Pages

Saturday, 10 August 2013

My Favourite Model - Sprue Cutters Union #3

Greetings Wargamers, and welcome once more to my humble hearth.

Today I bring you the Sprue Cutters Union Task number three. The Sprue Cutters Union is a collection of like-minded modellers working on a variety of projects and with differing modelling experiences, but all with a passion for our shared hobby. Could you be a Sprue Cutter?

In the spirit of supporting this fine venture, I encourage you to click on the links below and read posts by other members on this same topic:

Task number three is in many ways quite an obvious choice as a topic, but as with the previous task (Words of Wisdom), can be a tricky question to answer easily.

#3: My Favourite Model - which, of all the models and kits you own, is your favourite?

Well, I am a wargamer first and foremost, which means lots and lots of models and kits, and in my case, eleven different armies (five for Warhammer Fantasy and six for Warhammer 40,000), Imperial and Chaos fleets for Battlefleet Gothic (Games Workshop's game of space naval battles in the 41st millenium), several different fleets for Man O' War (GW's game of naval warfare on the seas of the Warhammer World), as well as models for Necromunda, Blood Bowl and a range of 54mm models for GW's Inquisitor skirmish roleplay game. That's a great many models and kits to choose between.

Whilst having a think, I went through the largest and most impressive models I have collected for my various armies and sets of miniatures. The 'centrepiece models'.

I considered the now 'classic' Wight Lord riding a Zombie Dragon all metal kit from my Vampire Counts army, with it's peeling hide and exposed ribs and hanging organs. I also considered the Giants from my Ogre Kingdoms and Warriors of Chaos collections. I looked at my Slaaneshi Daemon Prince, heavily converted from the Ghulavhar miniature from the Lord of the Rings game, which is the most comprehensive conversion I have yet completed.

The really big contenders were probably the Carnifex and Trygon kits from my Tyranid army (with their ferocious gribblyness and endless assembly options), the Thundertusk from my Ogre Kingdoms army (for it's sheer beefyness and cool extra details), and the Mortis Engine from my Vampire Counts army (which is not only impressive in it's size and variety of textures and painting options, but also with the ease that it goes together), but the number one choice, my favourite of all the kits I own is one that I hope the scale model builders among you will appreciate...the Imperial Guard Shadowsword Superheavy Battle Tank!

My reasons for settling on this particular kit are several. Firstly, it's probably the largest wargaming model I posess. Second is the practical side of the kit itself. It is a kit that can be assembled as one of two main designs of vehicle: the Shadowsword Superheavy Battle Tank, and the Stormlord Superheavy Assault Transporter. In addition to these two configurations, the Shadowsword can be altered to represent up to five (I believe) other variants of tank, just by changing the barrel on the main gun using the pieces that come in the kit. The different barrel sections just slot in and out, making it very easy to tailor your vehicle choice dependent on the enemy you will face, or just for a change.

My final reason for selecting this kit is that, for me, the Shadowsword (along with the Reaver Battle Titan) is an iconic fighting vehicle. A company of three of these immense tanks appeared as part of the Imperial Guard army in the 'Space Marine' ('Epic') Battle Report 'Assault on Barbarius' in issue 160 of White Dwarf (the first issue I ever bought), putting their equally iconic 'Volcano Cannons' to use blasting Eldar Fire Prisms out of the sky as they made 'pop-up attacks' from behind city buildings. Each turn an Eldar tank would rise up into the air and take potshots at the Imperial forces, and each turn the Shadowswords would be waiting...

This was the Battle Report that got me into the Games Workshop and miniature collecting hobby, so when the opportunity to own a Shadowsword for my own 40K Imperial Guard army came up (despite the cries of those who swear by the versatility of the Baneblade, another Imperial Superheavy Tank with a smaller main gun but a greater volume of fire overall) I decided I should have one. The thought of unleashing the mighty Volcano Cannon against the superheavy vehicles of my opponents was too much to resist.

The picture below is not of my tank, which is yet to be painted. But soon...soon.